1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to control of scanning devices, more particularly to using control sheets to control these devices.
2. Background of the Invention
The increased availability of scanning devices in the office environment has led to methods to increase their convenience. Scanning devices include any device that has the capability to scan, such as fax machines, copiers, scanners, etc. One of these methods is the use of control sheets in scanning devices to direct the scanner operation. A control sheet typically includes some type of codes or instructions that can be interpreted by the scanning engine on the scanning device.
One example of such a method is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,659,164, issued Aug. 19, 1997. In this method, a control sheet is inserted into the scanning job at the beginning of the job. Several jobs can be stacked together, but the control sheet must be first for any given job. The control sheet has machine-readable coded instructions, referred to as MRI, that direct the scanner in certain operations. The control sheet can direct settings for the scanner, or routing of the scan job to recipients across a network.
However, two shortcomings in this approach become apparent upon further study. First, having to place the control sheet first may be inconvenient. The user may have forgotten the control sheet until the scanning job has already started, or it may be out of order. The time and processing used to complete that particular scan job has then been wasted. It will have to be repeated with the control sheet in the proper place. Further, for some applications, putting the control information first may be impractical.
Second, use of machine-readable code can be awkward and time consuming. In order for the user to produce control sheets with the machine-readable code, the desired operations must be entered into a converter and the resulting code placed on the control sheet. It would seem far more convenient if the user could type or even hand print the instructions on a control sheet and then use that sheet instead of having to convert it. Furthermore, other applications would be possible if the control instructions are not held to the machine-readable format.
Therefore, a method is needed that allows the control sheets to be placed anywhere within a scanning job, such as a fax, copy or scan job, and that can use formats other than machine readable code.